VMware Replacement & Data Center Modernization Project

Modern Hyper-V Infrastructure Deployment with Dell PowerStore Storage and Disaster Recovery Integration for K-12 School District

The Challenge: Escalating VMware Costs and Aging Virtualization Infrastructure

This Maryland public school district faced mounting challenges with its aging VMware virtualization environment. Existing ESXi hosts supporting the district’s critical workloads were approaching end of support, while VMware licensing costs had increased significantly, making the platform financially unsustainable for long-term operations.

The district’s infrastructure included dozens of virtual machines spanning multiple generations of Microsoft Windows Server operating systems, including legacy workloads that required careful migration planning and compatibility validation. Backup consistency and VM management processes also varied across the environment, increasing operational complexity and support challenges.

At the same time, the district had continued investing heavily in Microsoft technologies across its data center ecosystem and wanted to standardize its virtualization platform around Microsoft infrastructure while preserving as much of its existing networking environment as possible.

To address these issues, the district engaged Data Networks to execute a comprehensive VMware replacement project designed to modernize infrastructure, reduce licensing costs, improve resiliency, and streamline long-term management.

The Solution: VMware Replacement Project with Hyper-V, Dell PowerStore, and Centralized Management

Data Networks delivered a complete VMware replacement project centered around Microsoft Hyper-V, Dell PowerEdge infrastructure, and enterprise-grade Dell PowerStore storage.

The solution included the deployment of a new highly available virtualization cluster consisting of three (3) Dell PowerEdge R660 servers configured as Microsoft Hyper-V hosts at the district’s primary data center. To support disaster recovery and backup operations, Data Networks also deployed one (1) Dell PowerEdge R760 Hyper-V server at a remote location to host Veeam Backup & Replication services and disaster recovery workloads.

To reduce infrastructure costs and maximize existing investments, Data Networks reused and reconfigured the district’s existing four (4) Juniper EX-3400 switches into a Virtual Chassis configuration. This architecture provided the high-speed connectivity required for Hyper-V clustering, storage traffic, live migration, replication, backup operations, and production virtual machine networking.

As part of the VMware replacement project, Data Networks implemented a new Dell PowerStore 500T SAN to provide enterprise-grade shared storage for all Hyper-V workloads. The storage environment was configured for high-performance block-level services, delivering improved scalability, resiliency, and storage efficiency for the district’s evolving infrastructure requirements.

Data Networks then deployed Windows Server, configured Hyper-V clustering, and implemented Windows Admin Center integrated with Dell OpenManage for centralized infrastructure management, monitoring, patching, and hardware lifecycle visibility.

The migration phase included the evaluation and conversion of approximately 23 active VMware virtual machines from the legacy VMware infrastructure to Microsoft Hyper-V. Inactive or replica systems were reviewed with district IT staff to determine migration eligibility before proceeding.

Each workload migration was carefully coordinated to minimize disruption to district operations. Following migration, Data Networks performed extensive testing and validation to confirm successful application functionality, network connectivity, storage performance, and operational stability within the new Hyper-V environment.

The project also included modernization of backup and disaster recovery workflows through the migration of Veeam Backup & Replication services, implementation of updated backup policies, and validation of failover and replication scenarios between the primary and remote sites.

Ongoing Value: Reduced Licensing Costs and a Modernized Microsoft-Centric Data Center

Through this VMware replacement project, the district now benefits from a fully modernized virtualization platform aligned with its broader Microsoft infrastructure strategy while significantly reducing long-term virtualization licensing costs.

The new Hyper-V environment delivers improved scalability, resiliency, and operational efficiency while extending the value of existing networking investments. Centralized management through Windows Admin Center and Dell OpenManage simplifies administration and improves visibility across the district’s virtual infrastructure.

With enterprise-grade Dell PowerStore storage, validated disaster recovery workflows, and a fully supported Dell and Microsoft solution stack, the district now operates a streamlined and highly supportable virtual infrastructure designed to meet both current operational demands and future growth objectives.

Tags: K-12, K12, data center, datacenter